Can a Kia be as safe as a Porsche?
Does price or a premium badge necessarily correlate with crash safety these days?
IN A CAR crash, which would you rather take your chances with, a Kia or a Porsche? As far as the two brands’ Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) go, there is actually very little to choose between them.
That’s the conclusion from EuroNCAP’s latest round of collision testing, in which the 2015 Kia Sorento and Porsche Macan were both awarded five-star scores, the highest rating.
MORE: Watch EuroNCAP crash its first Porsche
Other SUVs were also given five-star ratings by the testing body. The Land Rover Discovery Sport, a seven-seater car that will be launched here next year, and the Lexus NX (pictured below) both passed EuroNCAP’s battery of crash tests with flying colours.
The latest tests show that price is not necessarily an indication of crashworthiness.
The diesel version of the Kia Sorento was assessed, and in some ways found to outscore the Macan, the first-ever Porsche tested by EuroNCAP. A Macan costs $218,888 here without COE, with the Kia most likely costing less than half that amount (excluding COE) when it’s launched here next year.
The Korean car (above, tested with six airbags) achieved the maximum score in tough side-impact collision tests and was given a marginally higher rating than the Porsche for adult occupant protection, while the German car was rated more highly for child protection.
MORE: How Porsche wooed 1,000 VIPs with the new Macan
That said, it is still not the case that safety can be taken for granted.
EuroNCAP gave the Dacia Logan MCV just three stars, and said that in the frontal collision test “the passenger compartment suffered extensive deformation and could clearly not withstand any further loading.” It rated the driver’s chest protection performance as “weak”.
Dacia is Renault’s low-cost brand for budget-minded customers. Its cars are not sold in Singapore.
EuroNCAP has a database of the cars it has tested on its website that should serve as a useful guide for safety rankings if you’re choosing a new car.
The scores pertain to specific versions of each model, so be sure to tally their rankings with the Singapore specifications; a model sold here with fewer airbags than the one tested by EuroNCAP would not perform as well in a crash.
